Dutch ecologist Roxina Soler and colleagues have discovered that subterranean and aboveground herbivorous insects can communicate with each other by using plants as telephones. Subterranean insects issue chemical warning signals via the leaves of the plant, alerting insects aboveground that the plant is already ‘occupied’.

A fascinating discussion on communication and language, from a
theory about how animals compete for bandwidth to the beautiful and sonorous
language of whales, and how to recognize a message from E.T. And, making the case for letting
that library card lapse: the extinction of the written word.

One of the greatest philosophical and scientific challenges that currently
confronts humanity is the unsolved question of the existence of
extraterrestrial intelligence.

IT Wire announced that InterPlaNet (IPN) will serve as a backbone for a future inter-planetary system of Internets, acording to Vint Cerf, Google vice president and Internet evangelist. Cerf co-wrote the TCP/IP protocol which underpins the Internet in the 1970s and began work on the InterPlaNet in 1998.

The InterPlaNet protocol is designed to cope with delays caused by the vast distances of space, with data taking up to 20 minutes to travel between the Earth and depending on how far apart the two planets are.

"We are working on standardising the protocols to enable spacecraft communicate and share information across the solar system," Cerf said while delivering a talk on the 'Future of the Internet' during a visit to Bangelore, India.